Brenda Chapman – Butterfly Kills

Brenda Chapman – Butterfly Kills

Two murders, no obvious link, but in the hands of the same crime investigation division. When student Leah Sampson is killed in her apartment, her fellow students and co-workers at a help line speculate that she was having an affair that turned out nastily. The death Della Munroe’s husband, who shortly before had raped her, seems to be much easier to solve: again he attacked his wife and child and in killing him, the young woman could protect the both of them. Kala Stonechild, new in the Kingston team and the rest of detectives need some time to bring the two together – and combine them with a mysterious story about two young anonymous girls in danger.

The crime novel takes some time until it can really get you. The two cases have their thrill, especially Leah’s murder, but only in the second have the pace accelerates and the reader slowly understands how to put the pieces together. At the end, the different cases very cleverly and convincingly combined and everything perfectly solved. I needed some time to warm with the characters, to my impression, they lacked profile in the beginning and even at the end of the novel, much about Kala remained unclear to me. Yet, I believe they have the potential to develop in the following novels.